Silver Drake
by Shadewolf7
Summary: Harry Dresden finds himself in an interesting situation with a large dog... but exactly who is the pet, here? TV-verse.
1. Prelude

_**Silver Drake**_

_Prelude:_

"What do you want, Silver Drake?"

"I? A wizard… In exchange, a truce. I will not turn against you so long as there is a human wizard under my command. And _I_ will not kill him. During such a time, should you find true need, you may call on my aid. In times of lesser duress, you may call on the aid of my wizard through me. Fair?"

"You know my True Name," Ancient Mai said grudgingly. "With it, you could demand anything, even turn me against the High Council. You ask only for a single wizard."

"It is fair," another councilmember agreed, taking into account that this was a Silver Drake. Young though this one was, the sexless dragon was _extremely_ powerful, as well as rare beyond measure. Only one existed at any time, and when one died—and they lived far longer than most dragons, which were so long-lived that they were often mistaken for Immortal—another came into existance.

"So long as you may not choose one of a Council," another amended.

"This means that you may not command my wizard," the Silver Drake warned, "nor punish him. He and his belongings and actions will be mine to deal with as I see fit, short of slaying. Should you punish him without permission, I will take it as an act of war. Should he have Mundane friends, my protection extends also to them—from the Council. They will be… 'my problem', as the humans of today are wont to say."

"Agreed."

"Choose," Ancient Mai commanded.

The Silver Drake shrank, reforming into an equally silver Akita, the darker markings from its wings settling into darker stripes on the dog's back. "Dresden," fangs bared in a canine grin, "I want the one called Harry Dresden."

_xxxx_

_Characters—unless you don't recognize them—and settings not mine. Please don't steal my Silver without permission, it's the only thing mine in here. So far._

_I'm not actually starting anything new, here. I have this one started on another site, so I figured that I was writing it anyway…_


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 2 for anyone actually reading._

_Chapter 2_

For a moment, Mai didn't believe what she had heard, but disbelief quickly morphed into something between anger and relief.

Dresden was a Morningway and nothing good had ever come of that family. To have him outside the Council's control was… disturbing. But the young Drake hadn't chosen one of the Wardens, hadn't chosen Morgan. For that… relief, if only a little.

Already it had been agreed, so to protest now would be a breach of contract, but a question…

"Why?"

Silvery-blue met Mai's own near-black, the knowing gaze feeling as though it burned down to her very soul. No drake could match a Silver's stare—it was bred into them to respect the holders of Balance. Even dark-drake would offer no harm to the One.

"I am young, still. I wish to learn of the world, her ways and her creatures. To do so, I would live in her, not rule her living from a distance. And this Harry Dresden… he is _in_ the world, not watching from afar."

Mai dipped her head a bit in deferance to the Silver's point. "I will not interfere."

Dog ears pressed forward somewhat agressively and the disguised dragon gave a faint flash of fang. "I would not allow it."

Mai silently conceded the point.

_xxxx_

Bob was looking over some photos on the desk when a shape outside the plastic-covered window caught his attention. It hovered for a moment, seeminly trying to decide whether or not to knock, before raising a hand and rapping sharply against the wood of the doorframe.

"Come in," Bob called, hoping that no one would question his not actively _opening_ the door.

On the up-side of being an object-bound spirit, he couldn't actually _invite_ something in. If it was a magical creature with hostile intentions, Bob's invitations would not dismiss the wards. So he felt relatively safe in calling through the mostly opaque plastic covering where the glass should have been.

And he was summarily shocked.

The door pulled open and a large silver dog trotted in, only to be followed by Ancient Mai.

Mai opened her mouth, glanced at the dog as it gave her a sharp glare, and almost politely asked "Is Dresden in?"

Despite the fact that gravity had no hold on him, Bob's jaw dropped open before he managed to pull himself together. "Not at the moment, Lady Mai. He should be back in a few more minutes." If she was going to be polite, so was he.

"I see. Then I shall wait."

Bob couldn't restrain his curiousity—though he had not imagined Mai as a 'pet person', if she were to have an animal familiar, it would have to be as extrodinary as the shining dog. Silver-blue eyes were bright with intelligence as it glanced his way and the brindling along its back formed a vague steel-gray outline of wings against fur the shade of Sterling. "Is the dog yours, Lady Mai?"

Mai almost smiled, "No… Silver is here for Dresden."

Bob blinked. A gift? … That was one question he wasn't sure he should ask, and the dog's laughing gaze said she knew what he was thinking and it pleased her. He couldn't bring himself to think of the beautiful animal as 'male' and though 'female' didn't seem quite right either, it was closer than the other.

Before Bob had to come up with words to fill the amused silence, the door pushed open.

"I got the glass for the broken windows and—Hello, Mai."

_xxxx_

Harry Dresden was about what the Silver had expected and though the instant wariness of Ancient Mai was slightly troubling, it was not entirely unexpected. One of Mai's age grew jaded, and she did not believe in people as those younger might.

No, this young wizard was not evil. Gray, perhaps, but he was not of the Black, though he had touched it.

"Hello, Dresden," Ancient Mai replied to his greeting, sounding almost friendly, for her.

He tilted his head and glanced over at the 'dog'. "Yours?"

"No. You are… hers." 'Its' sounded too close to disrespectful, even if it was technically true.

"Mine?" the sheer incredulity in that comment was too much.

Mai let out a short bark of laughter, "You are hers, Dresden. Goodbye." Mai folded into a trick of 'not there' at the Silver's slight nod and amused canine grin, then left.

Meanwhile, Harry Dresden was blinking at the empty place where Mai had been in complete shock.

He turned to Bob. "Mine?" he repeated weakly.

The disguised Drake gave a soft bark.

"Um… hi, girl," Dresden dropped to one knee and held out a hand, "What's your name?"

As 'she' moved forward to sniff the outstreched fingers, the Silver felt a glimmer of satisfaction. He was passing the first test—how he treated animals.

"Mai called her 'Silver'," Bob supplied helpfully, even as Dresded began to scratch behind small, triangular ears.

"Appropriate," Dresden murmured, smiling a bit.

The Silver gave a cursory lick to the hand before moving on to the second part of the test. How would he deal with an unknown ability?

'She' trotted towards Hrothbert, sniffing at his spirit-essence, smelling old darkness and a newer light. Love, as pure an clean as any she had yet seen, untainted by the shadows that linked around it. And hatred—he had felt both, though not for the same person.

Then she reared up on her hind legs and licked him full in the face, knocking him over with her weight.

While even 'she' could not harm him, with sufficient concentration and Will, she _could_ touch him, just like any other spirit.

"Bob!" and Dresden pulled her off of his skull-bound slave, showing he also cared for that other as a friend. Another point in his favor. "Are you all right? Bob!"

Bob blinked up at his impromptu rescuer, "I'm fine, but Harry… I _felt_ that."

Dresden gaped for moment as he considered what to say and finally settled on "Mai gave me a _magic_ _dog?_"

"It would appear so," Bob stood up, hiding how very good it had felt to _feel_, if only the breif touch of some kind of magical canine.

"Well, how am I supposed to know how to take care of her? What if I feed her the wrong thing and she gets sick? Could I take her to the vet, or would that just make things worse?"

"Harry, one thing at a time. Find out what _kind_ of dog she is, then care for her from there."

The Silver nodded slightly. Merely concern in how to care for, no fear. Good. Now for the last.

"I am an Akita, at the moment. I eat bear meat." It wasn't a lie—she had and would eat bear meat. But she wouldn't insist on it.

"Bear meat? How am I supposed to get bear meat?" Then it registed just _who_ had spoken.

"You can _talk?_"


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Silver barked a laugh, "Aa, little Wizard. I can talk. And you do not have to feed me bear meat, I simply like it."

"All right, as far as I know, dogs—even magic dogs—don't talk."

"Despite appearances, I am not a dog, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Nor truly your responsibility, no more than the High Council was."

Dresden cringed slightly at the use of his Name and Bob stepped in.

"No more than the High Council 'was'?"

"The Wizard known as Harry Dresden as well as all possessions and Mundane associates are no longer the responsibility of the High Council. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is in the possession of the current Silver Drake, as Hrothbert of Bainbridge is in the possession of Harry Dresden."

"Hold it—Bob isn't a 'possession', and neither am I."

"Technically, Harry…"

"You are," Sliver fur shifted, started to change to glimmering scale, "and you are _mine,_ little Wizard."

"Harry…"

A quick glance silenced the spirit before the Wizard turned his attention back to the shimmering creature before him, "Easy…"

A breath and scale became fur again. "Mine," was growled, fur bristling, but at least it _was_ fur. "The Council holds sway over you no longer. _Mine._"

"It's best not to argue with a dragon, Harry," the spirit warned.

"All right, all right," Dresden held up his hands in a standard 'I'm not armed' gesture, "Yours. I get it."

Magic crackled briefly along his nerves and sparked through silver fur.

"… Damn. I just finished sealing whatever the High Council did, didn't I?"

Said dragon grinned, dog-fangs flashing, "You merely needed to claim understanding, not agree. That you did both merely makes it a stronger bond. I will not mistreat you, Harry Dresden."

"Define 'mistreat'," the spirit half-asked, dryly.

_xxxx_

They had come to an understanding, a sort of agreement. Enough of one that Bob was… not 'unworried', but less than anxious about the situation. Time would tell if things would be well in that arrangement, and Harry wasn't going to waste his time worrying over something he _knew_ he couldn't change.

Bob went back to examining photographs as Harry set about fixing the window and Silver curled up on the floor in front of the desk, looking for all the world like a large silver velvet pillow, her back to the room at large.

Harry had barely finished setting the glass and using a touch of his magic to reinforce it and set it into the wards when the oversized not-Akita stood up, facing the door, ears pressed forward and head tilted slightly, a curious expression in sea-storm eyes.

A brief and subtle surge of magic temporarily disoriented the Wizard, welling up and reinforcing wards with a secondary power-source—which Harry had to admit was mildly comforting. The surge hadn't altered them, as far as he could feel, and from past experience with the occasional really strong nasty… it was like a reinforced door with the same old key.

By the time he'd regained his bearings, Murphy was in his 'office', demanding answers on the crime-scene photos that Bob was still pouring over.

"Whoa, Murphy—" Harry tried to stop her from going to Bob, as she was already starting to reach out a hand to tap the incorporeal shoulder.

And something about the size of a small bear and bright platinum planted itself between ghost and Detective, growling softly.

Murphy froze and Harry couldn't blame her. Now that he looked—_really_ looked—Silver was easily the biggest dog he had ever seen.At chest-height on Harry and with the build of an Akita... it made for one massive animal, and the exotic beauty of her metallic coat only added to the overall impression. The growl had been neither loud nor truly threatening, but still…

"When did you get a dog, Dresden?"

"Uh—this morning. A friend gave her to me." Silently he was pleading that the Drake not take offense.

Instead of seeming offended, she gave a brief wag of her curled tail and turned to tug at Bob's shirt with her teeth, eyes seeming to glow briefly.

At the tug, Bob visibly started before quickly stepping aside to let Murphy see the pictures.

"I've never seen a dog that big before. What breed?"

"Ah…"

"My Lady, if you will—the photographs."

"Bob, right?" Murphy asked, "The tea expert?"

Harry shot a glance at the canine when it made a sound suspiciously like a snort and noticed blatant amusement dancing in those sylvan eyes.

"Among other things, yes," Bob agreed, "You see here, this sigil?" he asked, gesturing to one of the photographs, "It is for protection. Whoever drew this _knew_ they were being hunted, and greatly feared the hunter. And this? Protection against the Black, an attempt to ward off thaumaturgy. That means they believed that whoever was hunting them had something of theirs, something either important to them or something like blood or hair."

"So we're dealing with a stalker or someone they knew."

"It is likely, yes."

"So, any idea who the victim was?" Harry asked.

"Not yet. Our John Doe is keeping quiet about his history, so far. He's not in the system. We've got the sketches descriptions, but he's just so _ordinary._ Average height, average weight, brown hair and eyes, absolutely nothing that stands out at all. No one noticed him anywhere near the park. It's almost like he was invisible."

Harry exchanged a quick glance with Bob—that was something he hadn't thought of. What if this person had used Morgan's trick of making people not realize he was there?

"I might be able to get something back at the scene of the crime," he offered finally. He hadn't actually been there, yet, what with the drive-by taking out his window and the police questioning about that. He was pretty sure Murphy would have taken over that little case if it hadn't been for the fact she'd had an obvious homicide on her hands.

"Sure," Murphy hesitated, "What about-?"

"I'd like to stay here an continue looking over the photos," Bob interjected quickly.

"Fine. And the dog?"

Harry glanced at Silver, who's eyes said he'd better come up with a good excuse, because she was coming whether he liked it or not.

_xxxx_


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Just keep that giant mutt of yours from damaging the crime scene," Murphy instructed.

Harry winced when said 'giant mutt' twitched an ear in annoyance. 'Sorry,' he mouthed.

The Silver sighed and jumped out of the car, pacing along the edge of the 'crime scene, do not cross' tape. Harry dodged under and started to walk along the inside edge in the opposite direction, pulling a small double-ended quartz crystal out of his pocket as he went, checking for Black Magic.

Nothing.

Then a flurry of barking drew his attention to the disguised dragon, the giant dog's fur bristling as she snarled at something inside the crime scene.

_xxxx_

As the Silver paced the edge of the taped-off area, she felt it. A pervasive sense of evil, darker in intent than any Black Magic she had yet felt, but the Colour of this magic was not Black. Only the intent.

Her fur began to bristle, tiny sparks of magic crackling through her suddenly raised ruff, and she knew her eyes were glowing brightly. She started barking at the place the horrible feeling came from, drawing the attention of her Wizard to it.

The crystal in his hand glowed brightly as he drew nearer the sense of evil and she switched to a low, warning growl.

When Harry Dresden did not stop, she lunged past the taped line and grabbed his jacket, forcefully yanking him away from the sigil on the ground—still active. He was hers, and she wasn't going to let him accidentally kill himself quite that easily—that type of magical power would have shot-circuited the Wizard's own, likely leading to an extremely painful death.

But it was not made to match a dragon's power.

She slammed a paw on the ground, loosing a focused surge of colorless Power, shattering the path the magic was bound into and causing the sigil to explode.

_xxxx_

The Silver admitted to herself that that had not been the _wisest_ way to handle the situation. Oh, it had worked—no one had been killed or even injured past one bruised 'dog' and a winded Wizard (fur wasn't made to withstand the blunt concussive force of an explosion, after all)—but now the place was swarming with canines and handlers searching for more explosives that may have been overlooked.

One of the German Shepherds growled at her when she stood up and paced well past him to get to her human, but a slight forward press of ears and a slightly bared too-sharp tooth silenced him.

"Dresden, get your dog away from the Police animals!" the one Harry Dresden had called 'Kirmani' shouted.

Silver felt a glimmer of resentment—she was doing nothing to bother the beasts past the one warning for silence. Just for that, she redirected her walk to draw her slightly closer to the one shouting, letting him get a clearer idea of her size and deliberately baring teeth in his direction before going to lie at her Wizard's feet with a long-suffering sigh.

"All right, let's get you home," the one called Murphy ordered, if gently, ushering Harry Dresden to his feet.

Silver suddenly wished she'd listened in on the previous conversation, because the woman seemed… exasperated, perhaps a little angry, but more resigned. A strange set of emotions for the situation at hand, for certain.

Still, she followed without comment and jumped lightly into the back of Connie Murphy's car, settling across the floor of the back seat and then sitting back up abruptly. She hadn't Healed her bruises, yet, as it put on a bit of a lightshow when she had fur, and the majority of the tender flesh was on the front of her chest, where she had been facing the sigil when it exploded.

Next time, she would remember to stand further back or at least shift dragon-scale to deflect the blow. This was obnoxious.

She allowed herself to stumble on exiting the car when they arrived back at Harry Dresden's home, then limped her way into the building, whining endearingly and wagging her tail in a doggy show of good faith.

It worked. Harry Dresden immediately followed her when she made her limping way into the back room, asking 'Murphy' to wait a minute while he checked over his dog.

"Are you OK?" he asked as soon as they were well out of the police detective's hearing range.

Silver tilted her head in a brief moment of concentration, static lighting up her fur like a lightning lamp, then nodded. "I am well, now. What troubles Connie Murphy?"

Harry Dresden ran a hand through his hair, "She doesn't like me hiding things from her."

Silver flicked her ears in puzzlement, "Why do you hide these things from her, then?"

"If I tell her about magic, the Council will kill her."

Ears flattened and teeth bared, "They would not dare."

For a moment, Harry saw the shadow of the dragon she was, sinuous muscle and glittering scale, coiled around his kitchen, broad wings half-furled, teeth bared and eyes sparking.

Then there was only an oversized Akita, silver-bright and slightly staticky. But he was beginning to see why the Council might not want to go against such a creature.

"They agreed that you and all your possessions and Mundane associates were _mine._"

"Ah…" Bob's warning about arguing with dragons rang in Harry's mind. "Does that mean I can tell her?"

"Yes. Tell her. I will accompany you."

The command in her voice _could not_ be denied and Harry immediately turned to go and do as he was told.

Then she blinked, "I revoke the order," she stated, somewhat sharply. "I spoke without thought. You may tell her if you wish, but I will not order you to do so. I will, however, accompany you if you choose to tell her."

Harry stopped the instant the command was broken, then shook himself, "No—I'll tell her; show her the wards. She doesn't like it when I lie to her."

Silver nodded, a strange gesture from a dog, and moved to follow him as he somewhat hesitantly made his way back towards the front of the store.

_xxxx_

_I live! So does my puppy! We were worried there for a while, but she survived her week of _severe_ illness and is now doing well, though she's slower and weaker than she used to be. I'm just glad she's alive. So I decided to update my 'dog' story in celebration, though my puppy is black with white feet and shaped like a German Shepherd (even her ears, though they do flop half-over). She's about 3/4ths Shepherd, the rest Pit Bull, Border Collie, and Chow. I love my Klutz!_


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Murphy sat down. "So…" she trailed off. "Everything you told me—or _didn't_ tell me—about… about _magic._ It was all real."

Dresden glanced at Silver beside him, then Bob—the _ghost._ "Yeah, that about sums it up."

"And you never told me because this 'Council' would have had me killed."

"High Council," Dresden corrected, seemingly automatically. "Yeah."

"And you can tell me now… why?"

"Because I do not forbid it, Connie Murphy." The voice was light and sylvan, inhuman and powerful.

Murphy's eyes fell on the speaker as the Silver moved, light catching on her coat and making a vague halo around her body—complete theatrics, of course.

"Harry Dresden no longer falls under the dominion of the High Council. He is mine, now."

Too calmly, Murphy turned to look at Dresden. "Your dog is talking."

He winced, "Yeah, about that…"

_xxxx_

Murphy had long since resigned herself to insanity where the self-proclaimed Wizard was involved, but this was ridiculous. Dresden had a ghost and belonged to his dog, who happened to not be a dog at all and was instead some kind of magical dragon from fairytales. She sat on the edge of the chair, rubbing her temples.

"… All right, I believe you."

Not like she had much choice, at this point. The ghost had introduced himself by walking through a wall and the dog had grinned at her and shapeshifted into a silvery tiger before going back to oversized dog form. That wasn't proof of a dragon, but Harry _had_ said that the dragon-form was probably too big to fit in the room. So she'd give the magical shapshifting canine the benefit of the doubt.

"Good," said magical shapshifting canine stated briskly, standing. "Now, Harry Dresden, the ward I broke at the crime scene…"

"Wait—ward?"

The sharp sylvan glance Murphy received shut her up.

Silver fur shifted as the dragon-turned dog shook her head in a very human gesture, "Yes, ward. There was no bomb; it was a ward designed to short-out a Wizard's power in much the same way Magic shorts out electronics."

Harry winced.

Silver glanced at him and finished her explanation for the Mundane's benefit, "It would have caused an extremely painful death. I… overloaded it. Perhaps not the best idea, as it did cause the explosion, but it was the swiftest way to destroy it and my Wizard was… uncomfortably close to it."

"So… you blew up a ward—which brought in the bomb squad and ruined the crime scene—because otherwise Dresden was going to accidentally kill himself."

"Yes. The ward was not Black Magic and therefore he was not as wary as he perhaps should have been."

"Right. I'm not going to ask," Murphy was back to rubbing her temples.

"It wasn't Black," Dresden muttered, standing and starting to pace, frowning. "What color _was_ it?"

"White," the Silver returned calmly, "Though the _Intent_ was darker than any I have before felt."

Bob winced. He knew the implications of being able to turn the White to evil. _That_ took talent, power, and ingenuity. More so by far than the same with the Black—the Black was _expected _to be evil. Like using the Black for good cause, using the White for malicious intent was possible, but difficult.

"And the perpetrator must have known that a Wizard would be on the case," Bob muttered aloud, "Or he or she would never have left a trap such as a Magic Reversal ward, especially not by going to such lengths to conceal its true purpose."

"Right," Harry agreed, continuing to pace, "Which means whoever it is is good—_really_ good."

Silver nodded once, falling silent and moving to go lie near Murphy's chair, allowing the ghost and Wizard to theorize on their own.

"And it also explains why the Council hasn't picked up on it yet."

A silver ear flicked slightly as Murphy's hand came to rest on the top of the apparent canine's head, absently rubbing.

Amused, Silver allowed the minor indignity, deciding that the human woman needed some semblance of normality in her suddenly overturned view of reality.

"So this 'High Council' only picks up on Black Magic?"

"Not precicesly, my Lady," Bob corrected, "but the Black is the… simplest to watch for. They also look for the misuse of Magic, but the misuse of the White is almost unheard of. It would be… more difficult to pinpoint."

"Right," Murphy shook her head, slightly creeped out, "Like killing with a needle full of air."

"… Right," Dresden agreed after a moment. They seemed to be saying that a lot lately. "But we don't have enough information. I have no idea who or what we might be looking for."

_xxxx_

_My puppy's gone._

_The friend I was bording her at—well, her boyfriend got rid of my puppy one day while she was out. Apparently they'd been fighting over said puppy for a while and he finally just gave her to a co-worker of his who was looking ofr a high-energy dog. He was a friend, too, but I was mad at him—and, before I found out where he sent her to, he got killed in a car crash._

_I felt terrible—but at the same time, I'm still mad at him for not telling where my puppy went. But at least she's alive and, from what I heard, well._

_It is… enough. For now._

_But I miss them both—him and the puppy._

_Short chapter, and I apologize, but I'm stuck. Suggestions?_


End file.
